The present invention is directed to a tools used to propel users of wheeled vehicles, more specifically skateboards. The tool is a street paddle.
The inventors of the present invention are avid skateboarders. They have mastered most skateboarding tricks and have advanced into long board skateboarding. One of the newest trends in long board skateboarding is the use of street paddles to propel skateboards. The inventors are aware of a street paddle sold by Kahuna Creations that is used to propel skateboards. The Kahuna street paddle uses circular structures at the end of the paddle to provide the traction to propel skateboards.
The inventors in their quest for speed realized that the Kahuna paddle did not take advantage of the principles of physics. They realized that the footprint created by the Kahuna paddle limited the force that could be generated with the paddle. They also realized that the greater the paddle's footprint the greater the force that would be created by the street paddle when propelling a skateboard.
The Kahuna paddle had another drawback. The drawback was that when the paddle was used by riders of skateboards as a stabilizing means, because the circular structures were made of rubber, that sometimes the friction created by the rubber limited the amount of tricks that the riders could perform on skateboards. They therefore designed a structure that would have two lateral sides made of a material that would have a smaller coefficient of friction than rubber, thereby allowing users of the paddles to use the paddles as a stabilizing means without robbing them of the speed needed to perform some tricks.
The present invention had one advantage that was not planned by the present inventors, the ability to use the paddle as a wedge when using the paddle to stop the skateboard.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a street paddle that will allow users of skateboards to propel skateboards faster, that will allow users of skateboards to perform more tricks, and that will allow users of skateboards to stop faster.